GRAZER take you to a dreamy, shoegaze heaven with their latest single, Without You. Recently signing to the US label Cascine, GRAZER are one of the most exciting and popular bands in Australia. Hazy Days Music would like to thank Matt and Mollie for taking the time out and having a chat.

 I’m a real big fan and it’s been great seeing your popularity grow in such a quick time. How did GRAZER start? And what’s it been like getting to where you are now?

MATT: We have to go all the way back to a mystical land called London. We both moved over there straight out of school. I was in a punk band, not really going anywhere with it, and Mollie worked at some hoity-toity hotel. We were basically just ripping off Nirvana songs, haha. I was beginning to realise that this grunge thing wasn't going anywhere, and we needed to change our image. When we moved back to Australia, Mollie started learning the bass over the first lockdown last year. We recorded our first singles, Fever Dreams and Joe’s Sad Song, on trusty Garageband, releasing them on Spotify during lockdown last year. And it’s been all uphill from there, haha. (not really)

MATT CONT: After releasing our first couple of songs, we meet our lovely manager Phill. Phill has opened us to so many incredible opportunities over the past couple of months. Organising label meetings, and we just released our first singles through a US label. It’s been such an experience working with PR guys and whatnot. We’ve been playing a few shows all around Melbourne since everything has reopened in November. 

MOLLIE: I would say it all started before London, in the streets of our childhood, haha. We grew up as next-door neighbours and always had a shared interest in music, we weren’t playing in bands together, but we would often listen to records and share music. Our background of musical interests has always been very similar. 

MATT: I’d try and get her to listen to The Beatles, she’d try and get me to listen to The Smiths, and we’d never cross over as fans. I’m less stubborn these days, haha.

Without You is one of my favourite singles of 2021, it’s super dreamy and so catchy. What was it like writing and recording this one?

MATT: Without You has a nice catchy, driving post-punk bassline, which I'd been sitting on for about a year. When the label hit us up for our first single, the songs we had ready to go were a bit more rocky. So I thought a slight tweak of this bassline would make a perfect little electro poppy single. Cascine is more of an electronic/indie electronic label, and we have been dipping our toes into that world.

MATT CONT: The writing and recording process was super easy. Mollie came in and did some great takes on the chorus and recorded some incredible vocals. Our talented guitar player Thomas Lee (side project Oceans) recorded amazing guitar parts and synth feedback. It was a good easy process, and it’s doing well on Spotify.

The film clip you released for Without You is amazing! It looked like it would’ve been a wild time to make. How, who and where was this filmed? What’s the story behind the mannequin?

MOLLIE: We've always wanted to do something with a mannequin. It started out as an idea to use it subliminally in one of our videos. I think we were drunk one night and started developing this elaborate mannequin storyline. We ended up deciding that we wanted to base the video around it. It's a descent into madness. Matt, falling in love with this inanimate object and slowly going mad. It’s about the horror of being without the other.

MATT:I had my best hobo sweater on; it’s full of holes. It was so fun to film, running through Melbourne drinking wine with this mannequin. It was terrifying! And those painted on eyes. 

MOLLIE: It was really fun to film. Our drummer, Nic Sujecki, edited and filmed the whole thing. He did a really good job of that. 

MATT: Really wild editing ride on that one, so he deserves all the credit.

How was that trippy visualiser included? Who’s idea was it to include The Simpsons?

MOLLIE: That actually happened really spontaneously. We have this really shitty projector that we've wanted to use to project something for ages in a music video. And for some reason, Matt pulled up this Simpsons clip. 
MATT: There is this small subculture on YouTube. I’m sure so many people have heard of it. They drop down the bpm of the song and add a bunch of reverb to it. It usually has some sort of trippy cartoon visualiser playing along with it. They do it to a lot of Mac DeMarco songs and have a bunch with Rick and Morty visualisers. There is this scene where Homer eats the world’s hottest chilli. It's just so psychedelic, so many colours and crazy flashing visuals. It was just perfect.

Cascine is such a great label to join, congratulations! How has this journey been?

MOLLIE: It probably started with our last single, Nostalgia Seed. It went really well on Spotify, and that’s when we met our manager Phill Jones. He heard the song and reached out to us from the UK. We’d been approaching some labels but didn’t really know where to start. Phill really pushed it for us, and he got us in touch with Cascine. They are a really great label to join and have an incredible curated sound. I think we definitely suit their catalogue. 

MATT: Jeff Bratton and Lana Miller have been so welcoming over there. Any time of day, they will give us a call, give us updates on the going on’s of the song and how they are pitching it. They are so supportive, and I think they actually like our music, which is very important. 

MOLLIE: It’s weird because everyone is located all over the world, and trying to organise a time in LA, London and Melbourne where everyone is available you’d think would be impossible, but it’s been surprisingly smooth. 

MATT: We had our first call all together with the UK, LA and Melbourne at 1:30am our time. It was after one of our gigs at the fabled Old Bar in Melbourne. That was just a write-off, but it looks like we made a good impression.

Are you working on any new music at the moment?

MATT: The plan is to release as much music as we can with Cascine; they have done such a great job with this latest single. We are looking to put out another single towards the end of September and hopefully squeeze in another one before Christmas. Then bringing in the new year with either a full-length album or a very long EP, either way, we have content coming out our ears, haha. 
MOLLIE: We have the content ready, so it is just a matter of choosing which ones to release.

Can we catch GRAZER playing anywhere soon?

* The show has been postponed since the interview*

MOLLIE: We have one coming up at The Leadbeater Hotel on the 13th of August, but I’m guessing it’s going to be postponed. 

MATT: Come on down to the Leadbeater on the 13th of August. Doors are at 8pm; it's going to be a big night! We're being supported by Aunty Blue and Des Cortez, both local Melbourne bands from the Brunswick area. It should be a good night barring the potential issues/postponement. 

MOLLIE: I feel like it's going to be postponed, but regardless that will be our next show. We haven't played in ages and are very, very keen to play this one. We also have a new synth player to exhibit that night, and the first time we are playing our new single, Without You. 

MATT: Bit of baptism by fire. Throw him on the big stage of the Leadbetter. He will do well.

*For all the latest show details, click here*

What else is planned for the rest of the year?

MOLLIE: We both have a visual arts background and love combining that with our music. We put on a show at The Old Bar where we curated an exhibition and had a live set to go along with it, but it would be awesome to do that on a larger scale. I'm not sure if that will happen this year. If we get the chance, we will tour. 

MATT: We want to record a song in Japanese for all our Japanese followers. We are such lovers of Japanese Shoegaze, and Japan has such a great record of supporting Sonic Youth and my bloody valentine. I feel so sorry for everyone who doesn't speak English as a first language and has to listen to it in another language if you like the music.

MOLLIE: My dad speaks fluent Japanese, so hopefully, he can help us write some semi-coherent lyrics. 

MATT: Basically, we want to write a non-English song. Maybe in French? It might be a bit easier. 

MOLLIE: We will also be uploading a lot of videos in this last part of the year. We have a video for our other single Vision coming out very soon.

Stay up to date with GRAZER on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.

Posted on the 20th of August, by Jake Taylor.